Laura Ann Herzog Jacobs

From Laura Jacobs' office in the administration building at the University of Arkansas, she has a catty-cornered -- but clear -- view of Donald W. Reynolds Stadium. She thinks about that now as the weekly testing of the sound system blasts campuswide on the loudspeaker.

"I always think that when it's done, we should go 'Pig! Sooey!' because the siren sounds like the 'Wooo' part," she says, unaffected by its interruption. But "that hasn't taken off yet."

It's part of her charm. Not just the Razorback pride, but how unwavering the newly appointed UA chief of staff is.

"There's nothing accidental about what she does; she's unflappable," says Audra Flamming, Jacobs' closest friend. "She's very focused, she really can keep up, keep pace, and never seems flustered."

"She's unflappable," says Sandy Edwards -- without prompting -- deputy director of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and Jacobs' former boss. "She's one of those people who motors right along .... It's just the way she's calibrated."

"She can be a calming influence in any situation, when deadlines start coming up and workloads get heavy," says Roy Cordell, director of creative services at UA. "Where some people inflame, Laura is good at calming, remaining calm and getting people around her to think through [things] and implement solutions."

After more than 13 years on the UA campus, Jacobs was appointed in January to her new position as chief of staff and vice chancellor, under the newly named Chancellor Joseph Steinmetz. The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History reports to her, adding to the typical duties of advising the chancellor, executive strategy and being liaison to internal and external constituencies.

In her first order of business, Jacobs planned 75 meetings for Steinmetz all around campus.

"We're getting a better sense of what's happening, from the grassroots level, on campus and identifying 'What are the needs, challenges and opportunities?' And 'Where do we really excel?'" Jacobs says. "After having spent this time getting to know faculty and hear firsthand what their concerns are, I've never felt more connected to our academic mission."

QUIET CHARISMA

For anyone to be considered "unflappable," she presumably has survived something stressful or overwhelming. Jacobs' most recent test was returning to UA on the tails of an uproar involving former Chancellor David Gearhart, former Vice Chancellor John Diamond and a multimillion dollar shortfall in university development.

Easily the most public and controversial change of leadership in recent years, the crisis left a great deal of uncertainty and low morale for UA employees in its wake.

"We'd been through a rough patch, as a unit, with some of the things that happened with our leaders, and there was a lot of anxiety," Cordell says. Diamond headed up University Relations, the division responsible for the campus' public image and where Jacobs' career had been incubated. It was difficult at first to see how the team would move forward. "After a while, it takes a toll on morale and the outlook of people here, when they're not sure what's going to happen and expecting the worst."

When Jacobs came back as director of University Relations, she was just what was needed.

"She knew everyone and was familiar with what had gone on," Cordell says. "We knew what to expect from her, and that was the biggest thing that helped calm us down."

Before this she had been director of communications at Crystal Bridges. It stole her away from campus for two years -- exactly long enough to have missed the episode entirely.

"I was able to come in quickly with a bit of a detached but sympathetic view because none of what had happened had happened to me," she says. "I could direct people who needed direction and comfort them that we were on it: that it's a new day, new opportunity, new period of leadership."

That already established rapport of 11 years at University Relations made her the warm blanket at the conclusion of a cold, dark chapter. She had the experience, the connections; knew where everything was and how things worked. She only needed the key.

It is those same qualities -- steady, focused determination and a well-placed empathy and loyalty for those on her team -- that colleagues suspect were the main reasons she was appointed chief of staff.

SMALL-TOWN GIRL

Jacobs grew up in Fayetteville, where she, her parents and her younger brother landed after a series of moves from South Dakota to Missouri, Illinois to Florida and back. It was her father's work in medical management that had them on the road, but once they settled in the Ozarks when Laura was in junior high, the place became home.

Young Laura watched her mother, Carol Herzog, work in various journalism jobs -- crafting catalogs, writing for a newspaper and founding an activist newsletter for information about AIDS in the early 1990s, when few really understood the disease.

It was her first taste of the profession that she'd eventually choose for herself.

"She wanted to use the power of the word to ... dispel myths," Jacobs says. "Back in that day in Fayetteville, there wasn't much conversation about [AIDS] happening."

Jacobs stayed away from clubs in high school but signed up for yearbook staff. At the University of Kansas, she initially chose journalism. But eventually English and communications, as well as a return home to UA, won out.

"Laura's always been driven," Herzog says. "She's always been career focused, but when you're 4 or 5 ... Whatever she wants to obtain or achieve, she finds a way to do it.

"I wish she was my mother."

Looking to her older friends, Jacobs imagined that she would use her background in English to attend law school, but she eventually decided against it. An internship at the Genesis Technology Incubator on the edge of campus got her feet wet writing newsletters and managing other communications-related projects for new companies.

With college graduation coming up quickly and while applying for graduation at the dean's office, Jacobs had the realization that there were people aside from professors and researchers who worked at the university. It planted a seed, but in the meantime, she was waiting tables at the 36 Club on Dickson Street and scouring the classified ads.

ABSTRACT TO REALITY

Jacobs entered the workforce as an editorial assistant at Northwest Arkansas Times in 1995, but it wasn't long until she was doing more than answering phone calls and writing obituaries. She soon covered weddings and wrote business features and book reviews. Within a year, Jacobs had turned a fairly standard administrative job into a chance to add to her skills. She took up editing, page layout and graphic design -- and went from the convenient 9-5 to the night schedule to do it.

"That's really where I learned the value and respect for [the] deadline," Jacobs says.

It was a springboard, launching her to Arkansas Business Journal as an advertising coordinator who had to interact with the public to create ad concepts while also handling design, creation and printing.

When a graphic design job opened up on the University Relations team at UA in 1998, Jacobs was more seasoned and ready to start work at her alma mater.

"Laura was one of the more talented designers, so I brought her over [to UA]," says Adam Ritchey of InterraMedia, who had worked with her at the Times. "She had temperament and consensus building to work in fast-paced, high-pressure environments. Not everyone can work in those environments gracefully."

Designing diplomas, Christmas cards and miscellaneous marketing products was a whole different ballgame, and the newly emerging need for a Web presence meant her job and skill set were constantly changing.

When Jacobs entered University Relations "she was a quick study, smart, creative, talented ... but it was her quiet confidence that differentiated her," Edwards says. The campus was in the middle of the largest fundraising endeavor by an Arkansas organization, a $1 billion campaign, and "she had the ability to put abstract concepts into clear, understandable messages for the public.

"Her role in the success of the Campaign [for the 21st Century] was undeniable."

When they hired Jacobs, Cordell says, they did so with the thought that she would be an asset no matter where she worked. Since then, seeing her rise through the ranks as manager of development communications, editor for Arkansas Magazine, senior director for strategic communications and director of University Relations, that sentiment seems to have proved true.

BUILDING IN FLIGHT

In November 2011, Edwards recruited Jacobs to build a creative team for Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art as it was opening. To that point, the museum had outsourced all its communication services, media buying, advertising and public relations and photography. Someone was needed who could build the Crystal Bridges brand in-house and execute the tedious work of establishing standards and protocol for communicating with the public.

"She's been able to mine the collaborative spirit and bring people on board who are very loyal," Edwards says. As a leader, Jacobs "is very clear about objectives and celebrates success."

For Jacobs, there was excitement in building a team from the ground up, giving people a vision. Even more thrilling was molding the public image of the museum on a national level.

"Before the museum opened, there was a lot of negative buzz about it," Jacobs says. "About what it was going to be, why is it in Arkansas ... and from the art standpoint, of its collection.

"To see that perception change immediately as soon as somebody set foot on that property was fun, a really exciting moment to feel this pride in Arkansas."

Not an art history major in college, Jacobs at first felt self-conscious about her ability to accurately represent the museum until she realized that its greatest mission was to be accessible to guests of all levels of art knowledge.

With such a bare-bones team that first year, Jacobs gave more than her fair share of gallery tours -- to Harrison Ford, Arianna Huffington and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., among others.

She led her team to develop a stump speech of sorts that they took to any organization, business or other location that would have them, introducing the museum as a place where art is open, not intimidating.

"She was the ideal person at that time when the world wanted to know about Crystal Bridges, what it was and what it was becoming," Edwards says. "She made it real and understandable. I saw her do that masterfully."

Perhaps most of all, the experience gave Jacobs a different perspective for things to advance UA.

She says she came in ready "to move the institution forward and renew our focus on things that were important for the institution."

In returning, "on the one hand, it felt like I'd been gone a hundred years, but on the other, like I'd only been gone 10 minutes."

High Profile on 04/17/2016